What are the basic requirements of a Business Analyst?

Business Analysts are famously known as the force multipliers as the increase the overall efficiency of an organization by identifying the inefficiencies. However, this is easily said than done for, BAs need to possess a wide range of skills to be successful in execution of their role and bring the necessary transformation in an organization.

A typical BA’s main responsibility is to gather all the necessary information and understand the pain points of an organization. Then they are required to analyze this information in detail and understand their shortcomings and see how they can transform and add more value to organization’s business by implementing the current trends with respect to the shortcomings they found.

BAs are required to be flexible, analytical and excellent communicators irrespective of whether they are working as generalists or specialists. In the following sections we’ll look at what are the academic qualifications, certifications, technical as well as soft skills required to succeed in the BA role.

Academic Qualifications:

To start with, an undergraduate or bachelor’s degree is usually required to be eligible for a BA role. However, sometimes the role might require a specific domain knowledge or experience and this would from industry to industry as well as company to company. To illustrate, a company might me seeking a BA who only has qualifications as well as relevant experience in only in Finance domain rather than operations, retail, healthcare, supply chain & logistics, etc.

With such specific job requirements, the academic requirements can vary further as well. Though the bachelor’s degree might have educated an individual well on technology, numbers, modelling, analysis, etc., the role might need the individual to have a business acumen as well. With this being said, the profile might focus and prefer an individual who possess a Master’s degree in the business field such as MBA and then further see specializations like Marketing, Finance, Operations, etc.

Certifications:

Various certifications are available for the individuals to want to pursue or start their career as a BA and these certifications surely increase your chances of getting into a BA role. However, the most reliable, trustworthy and globally recognized ones are offered by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA).

Its, Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA), is ideal for the recent graduate and post-graduate students who wish to start and pursue their career in the BA role. This certification helps the students or entry-level individuals with the understanding of business process modelling, change management, requirements gathering and analysis, gap analysis, etc.

Next comes the Certificate of Capability in Business Analysis (CCBA) for the professionals having 2-3 years of experience as a BA with some domain specific knowledge as mentioned above. This certifications provides the professionals with a basic understanding of how business processes are carried out and how we can evaluate as well as analyze them. The certification further focuses on real-time case studies that can provide you with great exposure of the business world which surely adds value to your career.

There are 2 more certifications offered by the IIBA for the professionals with more than 7 years of experience called as Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) and Project Management Institute Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA) certification for BA professionals who seek Project Management as a career option after having a considerable experience of 10 plus years.